Bubble Gum Plop (Bubble Gum Weekend)

I think I found a candidate for one of the most ridiculous children's toys ever to be marketed in this fine land. Yes, it's even sillier than the Domino Rally in which the plastic snaps kept breaking off of the dominoes.

And it's gum-related. You know, that stuff people bubble with.

The product in question is something called Barbie Bubble Gum Shop. Since this toy is almost certainly no longer being made, here's an absurd commersh for it from 1995:



What exactly was the point of this toy?

It appears to me as if all the Barbie Bubble Gum Shop did was crush pieces of bubble gum into festive shapes. But why buy a whole toy just to do that, when all you need to do is step on a piece of gum with a gym shoe?

Considering Barbie's popularity, I found very few substantive mentions of this toy on the Internet. I did find a detailed page describing the patent for the process by which the toy reshaped the wads of gum. I also noticed several folks were selling this "rare" toy - sometimes for less than $1.

Why couldn't people just stick with Tinkertoys?